ICE Air in Yakima: Yakima’s Role in the Detention and Deportation Pipeline

At the request of immigrant community organizations, in 2018 we began research into deportation flights from King County International Airport (Boeing Field). Drawing in particular on our analysis of ICE Air’s database containing over 1.73 million records of passengers on privately-chartered flights, in April 2019 we published two research reports explaining the structure of the ICE Air network and the human rights implications of its operations: one examined ICE Air’s operations nationally, and one focused on King County. This report is the third in that series, exploring the role played by the city and county of Yakima in the dynamics of immigration detention and deportation. We believe that such analysis can yield a deeper understanding of the role played by Washington state communities in federal immigration enforcement, which is necessary to craft improved policy at the local, state, and federal level.